How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.[Part].Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
...and now this: breaking up after forty-five years the home of the woman who had been the only mother he, Edmonds, ever knew, who had raised him, fed him from her own breast as she was actually doing her own child, who had surrounded him always with care for his physical body and for his spirit too, teaching him his manners, behavior—to be gentle with his inferiors, honorable with his equals, generous to the weak and considerate of the aged, courteous, truthful and brave to all—who had given him, motherless, without stint or expectation of reward that constant and abiding devotion and love which existed nowhere else in this world for him... (2.3.1.66)
Roth is not unique as a white plantation owner's child in having been raised and cared for by an African American woman. In fact, this was common enough to lead to the "mammy" stereotype in many works of fiction. Another point is that the interracial ties of the McCaslin family go beyond blood; Roth believes that Molly was the biggest influence on him as a person. Unfortunately, he forgets a lot of the lessons she taught him.
Quote #8
"Tennie's Jim," he said. "Tennie's Jim." […] "It's a boy, I reckon. They usually are, except the one that was its own mother, too." ( 6.102)
Isaac realizes that Roth's baby, revealed as Tennie's Jim's great-grandson (got that?), completes the family cycle, repeating the original miscegenation of old Carothers and bringing back together the black and white descendants of the family. There's another cool parallel here, because the woman, like Isaac, turns her back on that family history. She plans to go back up North and live there.
Quote #9
[she] lifted down the horn, the one which General Compson had left him in his will, covered with the unbroken skin from a buck's shank and bound with silver.
"What?" she said
It's his. Take it." (6.106-8)
In "Delta Autumn," Isaac, despite his outrage, gives the baby General Compson's horn, something really meaningful to Isaac, something that represents the continuity of the generations. Isaac's the last remaining white male McCaslin, so that line will die with him. This story would be a great ending to the complicated family history, because it points to the family's future. But there's one more story to tell: "Go Down, Moses."